The air raid siren in Arnhem had already gone off several times in the morning of Sunday, September 17, but each time it had been a false alarm. But from a quarter to eleven it was a hit. Dozens of military targets in Arnhem and the surrounding area were hit by Allied bombers until approximately…
An underexposed aspect of the Battle of Arnhem is the impossible task that the 1st British Airborne Division faced on the first day of the landings. In the first version of the plans for Operation Market Garden, all British paratroopers would land in the operations area near Arnhem on the first day of the operation.…
More than 12,000 British and Polish airborne troops whose aim was to capture the Rhine Bridge near Arnhem in one day. That is pretty much the image that many people have about the purpose of the British airborne landings near Arnhem on September 17, 1944. That is incorrect. Because there were insufficient aircraft available, only…
In addition to John Frost’s battalion, there was another British unit that managed to reach the Rhine Bridge on Sunday, September 17, albeit badly damaged. Those were the men in the jeeps of the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron. The 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron was known within the British airborne forces as the ‘Freddie Gough Squadron’,…
On Sunday, September 17, the first day of Operation Market Garden, a total of 3 battalions of the 1st Parachute Brigade advanced to Arnhem. Only the 2nd Battalion led by John Frost reached the bridge in Arnhem that evening. The 3rd battalion stopped at the Hartenstein hotel in Oosterbeek. The 1st Battalion fought the heaviest…
None of the original buildings that the British held on the north side of the Rhine Bridge during the Battle of Arnhem survived the war. In addition to drawn maps of the situation around the bridge, several illustrative films have been made in recent years that clearly show what the area around the Rhine Bridge…
Many people are aware that the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion led by John Frost managed to reach the Rhine Bridge via a route along the Rhine on Sunday, September 17. Much less known is that approximately fifty British soldiers from the 3rd Battalion also arrived at the bridge on Sunday night. Because the British…
It was a mighty metal construction from 1897: the railway bridge over the Rhine at Oosterbeek. Capturing this bridge was one of the objectives given to the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Parachute Brigade under the leadership of Colonel John Frost during the airborne landings. They had almost succeeded and it had drastically changed the…
On the first day of Market Garden, three British paratrooper battalions advanced from the landing areas at Wolfheze to Arnhem. The third battalion under Colonel John Fitch had been ordered to take the road to Arnhem via the Utrechtseweg. The majority of the battalion did not get further than the Hartenstein hotel in Oosterbeek on…
Even before the airborne landings at Wolfheze on the first day of Operation Market Garden had properly started, the Germans were already taking countermeasures. Surprise is an important weapon of airborne troops. But at Arnhem there was no surprise at all. Operation Market Garden started in Arnhem and the surrounding area in the morning. Dozens…